Maynard James Keenan: New Tool Album "Was Fantastic 8 Years Ago" | Page 2 | Revolver

Maynard James Keenan: New Tool Album "Was Fantastic 8 Years Ago"

"The fear that it's not as good as it can be — that can be detrimentally crippling"
tool_maynardjameskeenan_4_credit_travisshinn.jpg, Travis Shinn
photograph by Travis Shinn

Yesterday, September 1st, BBC Radio 1 aired a special episode of Rock Show With Daniel P Carter focused on the momentous release of Tool's new, fifth album Fear Inoculum. The show included interviews with members of Bring Me the Horizon, Slipknot, Rage Against the Machine and more discussing Tool's influence on them, as well as the band's own singer Maynard James Keenan and bassist Justin Chancellor talking about the epic LP and the current dynamic within the group.

Chancellor revealed, among other things, that some of the musical ideas on Fear Inoculum date as far back as 1995, when he joined the band's lineup, replacing original bassist Paul D'Amour. As for Keenan, he spoke about Tool's songwriting process, their decision to finally release their music digitally, and other topics. Addressing the question of why it took the band over a decade to finally record and release a new album, the singer opened up a bit about the psychology of Tool.

"I think a lot of it [was] just that age where you want it to be right and we've had some success in the past and the fear of this thing coming out and not being accepted — the fear that it's not as good as it can be — that can be detrimentally crippling," Keenan said, as reported by the PRP. "Probably in if I had to 'psychology 101' [it], I would have to say, 'Well, yeah, that's why it would take 13 years to write something, because you're paranoid that it's not gonna be the best that it can be and then you second guess every single step that you make,' when it was probably good enough — I shouldn't say good enough — it was fantastic eight years ago.

"But then the crippling second guessing of yourself sets in, and that psychology and that spiral you get in, it can be extremely daunting. And you can actually not even feel it happening.

"All of a sudden you wake up and it's 13 years later. The hard part is accepting the fact that maybe you're not as important as you think you are and you should probably just get on with it."

You can listen to the full episode here.